We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Thoughts On A Sunday
Spring temps have arrived with a vengeance, with daytime highs in the 60's over the weekend and forecasts saying it could reach the 70's during the week. Considering just a couple of weeks ago we still had below normal...

re home mortgage interest deduction. Our economy is already so full of distortions created by tax policy that I find it curious how "economists" keep talking about this one. let's get rid of corporate subsidies to GE et al before we screw up the housing market AGAIN. I also find it annoying when getting to keep some your own money via a deduction is considered a tax expenditure, let's be clear here, the government is not "spending" anything when it collects fewer taxes. economists and liberals say "it amounts to the same thing", to which I call BS. equating keeping your own money to the government not taking your money flies in the face of the concept of self-government and is deliberately sowing the seeds of confusion among the unthinking public. do you really think the 1% ers won't incorporate their homes and still take the deduction? this is just a proposed money grab that will once again stick it to the middle class and screw-up the one asset many hardworking middle class Americans still have, their home. Wall Street has long coveted the trillions of dollars in the housing market and this strikes me as a way for them to get their hands on it, crash the market (again), discourage homeownership and make us a nation of renters, with your "local" hedge fund as landlord. when that happens watch all the gov't "savings" from the end of the mortgage interest deduction(for homeowners) fly out of the treasury as subsidies to Wall Street landlords.

Libs love dead commies because they are the saints of socialism. Socialism is a replacement culture for the West, and it will annihilate its predecessor. It is a total (and totalizing) culture with its own stories, heroes, villains, morality, mores, et. al.

All arguments about freedom of speech and religion are pointless. Socialism recognizes no rights held by its enemies.

Why not get rid of the charitable deduction? How about eliminating all "non-profit" subsidies. People could still do the same thing that non-profits and NGO's do today but without the special tax status. Why not eliminate all tax free zones and tax exemptions for certain businesses? Why allow some people and groups to evade paying property taxes while others have to pick up the slack? Some groups of individuals based on race pay no federal taxes, does this make sense? In other words lets make taxes fair across the board. Not just pick and choose winners and losers. If the tax rate is 20% and your income is in that tax bracket then you pay 20%. No special treatment, no exceptions, period. Lets end EITC which has become a scam. Lets get the IRS out of the welfare business.

My knowledge of the Mormon religion is minimal, but I am given to understand that Mormons look out for each other first and foremost. The Reid's moving to ruin a fellow Mormon while favoring the Chinese could be a huge no-no within the Mormon community.

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can clue us in?

Or does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints grant special dispensation to the rich and powerful members to do as they please?

Harry Reid is a corrupt politician. Corruption always trumps religious affinity. This is common of all religions. The more a politician promotes their religiosity, the more you can know they are using it as cover. Just as drug users carry Bibles and spout Scripture to cover their malevolent intentions.

Income Inequality: 'As Paul Krugman put it: “Still, something is clearly happening to the traditional working-class family. The question is what. And it is, frankly, amazing how quickly and blithely conservatives dismiss the seemingly obvious answer: A drastic reduction in the work opportunities available to less-educated men.” ' The Beard ignores conservative efforts to promote business' ability to expand and hire more employees, and reduce the effects of regulations that cause them not to.

"Constitutional conservatives are the most substantial existing threat to the establishment hierarchy because, unlike dissenting groups of the past, we know exactly who the guiding hand is behind economic and social calamity. In response, the overall conservative culture has come under relentless attack by the establishment using the Administration of Barack Obama as a middleman. The goal, I believe, is to misdirect conservative rage toward the Democratic left and away from the elites. The actions of the White House have become so absurd and so openly hostile as of late that I can only surmise that this is a deliberate strategy to lure conservatives into ill-conceived retaliation against a puppet government, rather than the men behind the curtain."

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